Family Dogs
Nice article in the Boston Globe from March 29, 2009: Why we treat our pets like royalty.
Modern pet ownership has been transformed by our evolution in recent decades into a less connected, lonelier society. Four-legged companionship matters more than ever… In an atomized era, the growing amount of time and money we collectively spend on pets is an indication of how much we thirst for community, leaning on animals for support once provided by other humans.
“Social networks fragmented over 40 years – there’s more living alone, more divorce, more childless people, fewer people living in close geographic range of their families, and less community involvement,” Serpell says. “As we lose social support, as our relations become fragmented, we are using dogs to fill the gap.”
Research suggests that a lonelier society may be more willing to see human qualities in pets. In a 2007 article, University of Chicago professor Nicholas Epley and three colleagues determined that subjects who were less socially connected were more likely to attribute human emotional characteristics to dogs.
Interesting and thought-provoking stuff!
